MusicXML primarily models a document - a musical score - rather than an abstraction of a document. This makes the format easier to read and understand than those that use either non-musical names or cryptic abbreviations, making the format better suited for archival use. MusicXML’s element and attribute names are based on the English-language musical terms used in the USA. The basic musical organization mapped smoothly to the music representation of popular music notation editors such as Finale and Sibelius. Our initial implementations confirmed that MuseData was indeed a good starting point for MusicXML’s design. MusicXML extended these designs to support popular as well as classical music, including tablature, guitar chord diagrams, and percussion notation. The basic organization of musical structure comes from the MuseData format ( Hewlett, 1997), with additional ideas from the Humdrum format ( Huron, 1997). MusicXML models common Western music notation using concepts and vocabulary that are familiar to Western musicians. Over-abstraction was a fundamental reason why the earlier Standard Music Description Language (SMDL) format ( Sloan, 1997) was never adopted. This is important for getting a format widely implemented, as most music notation software developers are musicians themselves ( Good, 2006a). This makes the markup much more musician-friendly than is possible in more abstract, general-purpose languages. MusicXML reflects these commonalities and boundaries of musician experience. Most performers who read Western sheet music cannot read early or non-Western music. MusicXML does not represent earlier Western music in its original notation, nor does it represent non-Western music. The format needed to support a wide range of Western music of commercial and artistic interest, in a way that was practical for contemporary music notation applications to use. Since MusicXML was being developed by Recordare, a commercial company, the focus was relentlessly practical. MusicXML represents music from the 17th century onwards, including guitar tablature and other music notations used to notate or transcribe contemporary popular music. MusicXML was designed to be the MP3 equivalent for digital sheet music. But MIDI loses a great deal of information when representing music notation ( Selfridge-Field, 1997). The only way to share sheet music files between applications was with Standard MIDI Files. Instead, each application had its own proprietary format. However, there was no standard format for music notation that compared to the MP3 format for audio. Digital sheet music retail sites like Sunhawk were also starting to appear. MusicXML’s design and development began in 2000, when Internet audio applications were coming into widespread use. These applications include the display and editing of music notation, the playback and editing of a performance of a musical score, musical analysis, and music retrieval. It is designed so that a single XML file can be used by a wide range of music software applications. MusicXML is a universal interchange and distribution format for common Western music notation. The development and history of MusicXML is described in this chapter. MusicXML is supported by over 160 applications. MusicXML was developed by Recordare and can represent music from the 17th century onwards, including guitar tablature and other music notations used to notate or transcribe contemporary popular music. MusicXML’s design and development began in 2000, with the purpose to be the MP3 equivalent for digital sheet music. Reprinted with permission from Structuring Music through Markup Language: Designs and Architectures, Jacques Steyn, ed., IGI Global, Hershey, PA, 2013, pp.
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